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Pompei: NFL Players Need To Understand The Seriousness Of Injury

CHICAGO, IL - DECEMBER 18: Brian Urlacher #54 of the Chicago Bears awaits the start of play against the Seattle Seahawks at Soldier Field on December18, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The Seahawks defeated the Bears 38-14. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)Brian Urlacher. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

“It may be another generation or two of players before the NFL player takes the same approach to concussions, and really injuries overall, that the NFL is trying to take,” Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune told The Mully and Hanley Show. “I think it’s been ingrained so long in the NFL and NFL players, football players, that you just suck it up, you deny injury. You try to block it out of your head. You do everything possible to get on the field, to stay on the field.

“I think that is a quality that we really make players heros for. I mean, Walter Payton was a hero, was a great player, because of his toughness, because he never came off the field. What is involved in that? Well, it’s denying your injury, basically. It’s not dealing with the symptoms of injuries that you know he felt 100 times on the field.”